EBP Exchange - UMB School of Social Work

A fascinating paper written by George Rust (Morehead) and Lisa Cooper (JHU) proposes an array of ways that practice research can be improved to provide information that can more rapidly and assuredly address health disparities. The suggestions range from those related to the make up of the research team, to new research designs, to strategies for implementing ESIs that include components at all levels of the social ecology. I highly recommend it.  The citation (not in APA format, I’m afriad) and url follow:

 George Rust, MD, MPH and Lisa A. Cooper, MD, MPH

How Can Practice-based Research Contribute to the Elimination of Health Disparities? The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine 20 (2): 105-114 (2007)

http://www.jabfm.org/cgi/reprint/20/2/105

I was in a meeting on Monday and was told that a survey of child welfare administrators indicated that they wanted “solid” evidence that privatization was advantageous before they further explored its implementation.  So, I started thinking about what solid evidence is and what it is not. With help from some of my colleagues, I arrived at the attached solidness of evidence scale. You might find it useful when you are trying to plan a program or service and having to decide the solidity of the basis for your choice.

solidness-of-evidence-scale.ppt

As a follow-up to the Teaching Evidence Based Practice Conference in Austin last October, Aron Shlonsky is working with a student at UT-Austin to compile course syllabi.  See more details below:

One of the suggestions that came out of our many meetings was to build and make available a clearinghouse of high quality EBP syllabi.  Such a repository could be used to help both individual instructors and schools interested in reshaping curricula.  To that end, we are inviting participants to submit their own syllabi, or the syllabi of others (with their permission, of course) to be considered for inclusion in a compendium of syllabi that we eventually hope to house at CSWE.  Submissions can detail the process of EBP (a la the Sackett et al. EBM approach), the instruction of students in effective interventions (EBP?s), and/or the integration of such approaches into a course.  We are also interested in distinguishing between BSW and MSW courses, as well as distinguishing between beginning and more advanced classes (e.g., 1st year MSW foundations course v. 2nd year MSW specialization course; first year EBP research course v. 2nd year EBP research project).  Panel members have already begun to send in their submissions and we are hoping to have the clearinghouse well underway in the next few months. Danielle Parrish at UTAustin will be joining me in this endeavor and will be in charge of receiving and maintaining the files.  If you are interested in contributing, please send them her way as soon as you are able.  Her address is:

Danielle Parrish, MSW
Doctoral Candidate
School of Social Work
University of Texas at Austin
(512) 971-4583
dparrish@mail.utexas.edu

Also, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need more clarification on what we are looking for. Best regards and look forward to hearing from you,Aron Shlonsky
Associate Professor
University of Toronto
Faculty of Social Work
246 Bloor St. W.
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1
Canada
Phone: (416) 978-5718
Fax: (416) 978-7072
email: aron.shlonsky@utoronto.ca

I have not followed the world of “practice guidelines” very carefully, except to note that this has been a focus of the evidence-based practice work at Washington University’s Brown School of Social Work, especially Aaron Rosen and Enola Proctor. I know that this has become integrated into their curriculum, as well, and students are expected to know what resources there are that indicate best practice. 

I recently came across this very intriguing website, the National Guildeline Clearhinghouse, which is a initiative of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality(AHRQ) that has practice guidelines for many health conditions, including behavioral health assessments and treatments (222 guidelines in all).  I encourage your review. (I welcome comments from those who know more about this topic of implementing guidelines than I do.) The website is at http://www.guideline.gov/about/about.aspx. The behavioral treatments are at http://www.guideline.gov/browse/browsemode.aspx?node=7542&type=2